Opening her eyes, she took in the console. All the cells had been open when the prisoners arrived, but the guard had closed them individually. There had to be a way to open them all at once.
Then she saw it. Along the top of the console, similar to what her sound engineer used during concerts to control the vast number of speakers, was each cell’s number listed individually and the large icon that synced them all. Every cell number lit up when she pressed it. She entered the code she’d seen the guard use and pressed enter.
The cell doors started to open. Perfect! She rushed out of the control room to cell 450 and her brother.
∞ ∞ ∞ ∞ ∞
Ranvir was immediately on his feet and ready to fight when the energy bars to their cell doors suddenly disappeared. So were the other cyborgs. They weren’t anywhere near Tyurma. There was no reason for their cells to be opened yet. Unless the guards were coming to kill them, they wouldn’t find that so easy since the wrist and ankle cuffs that had restrained them during the trial had been removed when they entered the cell.
Ranvir was more than ready to defend himself. However, he wasn’t prepared for the beauty who rushed into the cell in an ill-fitting guard’s uniform and a cockeyed hat, strands of white hair escaping from it. Her striking blue eyes quickly scanned the cell.
“Where’s Nas?” she demanded urgently.
“Who?” one of the other cyborgs asked.
“Nas,” she snapped, her lyrical voice becoming sharp. “Captain Nasli Demeter. He’s supposed to be in this cell.”
Ranvir knew who Nas was. He had served with him under his father and then under Nas when he’d taken over the unit. After entering the cyborg program, he’d even been a part of Nas’s pod. Until the day he’d been promoted to a major and assumed command of his own pod.
It wasn’t common for a cyborg to promote out of a pod. Pods were tight-knit groups, but Nas had put him up for promotion, stating Ranvir was a natural leader and his talent and skill would be wasted if he wasn’t leading a pod.
When promoted, Ranvir severed his closed-network link with every member of his old pod, except for Nas. They’d served together for too long and decided to maintain the network, even though they rarely used it. Tapping into it now, Ranvir reached out to Nas and received no response.
“My Gods! You’re Talyani,” the civilian blurted out, his voice full of awe. “TheTalyani. I’m Vujcec. Vujcec Wells. I’m a huge fan.”
Talyani’s gaze went to the man she hadn’t noticed before sitting on one bench. Ranvir could tell she was used to being recognized. Stillreally? On a prison transport ship?
“Captain Demeter is not on this ship,” Ranvir responded, causing her gaze to jerk back to his.
Her eyes widened in disbelief, and she took a step forward. “What? He has to be. My source told me they were loading you by your unit numbers.”
“Your source was wrong,” he told her bluntly. “They made sure to separate the pods.”
“Oh, Gods, what do I do now?” Talyani ran a shaking hand through her hair. “He needs to get off whatever ship he’s on, or he’s going to die. We all will.”
“What are you talking about?!” Ranvir gripped her waist and slammed her against the cell wall. He forced himself to ignore how light and delicate she felt or how her waist was so tiny that his hands encircled it.
Talyani cried out and gasped for breath. Ranvir ignored his remorse for the rough handling. “Explain!” he repeated, his fingers digging deeper into her flesh.
“The…the ships are set to self-destruct,” she finally managed to get out.
“What?!” Wells shrieked, but everyone ignored him.
Holding her gaze, Ranvir demanded, “When?”
“In… in less than fifteen minutes,” she stuttered. “I overheard two of the guards talking about it.” Her gaze searched his. “Are you sure Nas isn’t on this ship?”
He was certain. “I’m sure.”
“Then we need to get word to him.” She struggled in his hold, but his grip remained firm.
“We’d have to use the open network,” one of the other cyborgs said.
“Then do it!” she demanded, looking over his shoulder.
Ranvir lowered her to her feet. “The emperor will know the minute we use the open network. He’ll immediately destroy the ships, and no one will survive.”
Suddenly all four cyborgs stiffened. They stared straight ahead, unblinking.